


I Forgive You

by calendarpages



Category: Glee
Genre: Future Fic, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-06-08
Updated: 2012-06-08
Packaged: 2017-11-07 06:47:03
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,469
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/428118
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/calendarpages/pseuds/calendarpages
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>David Karofsky let the guilt he's harbored since high school consume him. Now, twenty years in the future, a chance appearance in his life could free him, but only if he lets it.</p>
            </blockquote>





	I Forgive You

David Karofsky wasn't proud of who he was. He was a Lima Loser, so to speak, and he didn't even pretend to think otherwise. David had a lot of regrets, the first being bullying young Kurt Hummel in high school. David had been scared, so very scared of all of these  _feelings_  he was suddenly having and Kurt had seemed like the perfect target at the time. David had been jealous, uncontrollably jealous. Kurt was loved. He had a group of friends who, at the end of the day, supported him unconditionally; he had a Dad who would attack a bully in the middle of a school hall for him; he had a boyfriend who was fully prepared to transfer schools and give up cushy private school life just to make his senior year magical; but most of all, Kurt loved himself. David knew that for certain. He'd tried to beat the Kurt out of Kurt Hummel but in the end, the stronger of the two won out.

Nobody loved David.

He'd come out to his dad and in a fit of rage, he'd nearly kicked David out. He didn't have anyone else to come out to, so he stayed deep and safe in the closet. His glory days were over and his high school friends were gone, leaving David behind in the dust of their success- alone and broken with nobody to put him back together. Yes, nobody loved David.

High school was the best and the worst time of David's life. Back then he'd been popular; he'd been a great football player, he'd had a bright life ahead of him, one that he could look back on when he was old and gray and be proud of. But then he fell in love, as many high schoolers do, and his future had suddenly begun crash down around him. Because David didn't fall in love with some beautiful blonde girl, deemed out of his league by some social caste system he didn't understand- he fell in love with a smart, funny, gorgeous _boy_ who went by the name of Kurt Hummel. And to David, that meant the end of bright futures and happy days to come. Because people like him didn't deserve to be happy. They were the losers in life, and that is what David convinced himself he would always be.

When he graduated high school, David did what he did best- menial labor. When you're lifting heavy two-by-fours or doing something else equally trivial and strenuous, David learned, there wasn't room in your mind for thinking. And when David thought, all he thought about was how much he hated himself and how much he regretted every little thing he'd done in his life. Through the combination of ridiculous work hours filled with hauling construction materials- losing himself in the pain of his straining muscles and an unhealthy amount of booze, David became numb. He didn't have friends. He didn't date. David could count the number of conversations he'd had in the past six months on his fingers. But one of those few conversations had been with Burt Hummel, the father of the man that he found he was still in love with, even after all these years devoid of feeling.

On some nights when David got particularly drunk and particularly down on himself, his undying love for Kurt was all that felt real in his booze-induced haze.

Burt had been kind, far too kind. He was having some renovations done on his shop because he was planning on selling it as there was no one to take it on after he died. Kurt and Finn were in New York, Kurt on Broadway (this hadn't surprised David one bit) and Finn on the NYPD so neither of them were in any place to become mechanics. Burt had offhandedly mentioned that Kurt would be visiting in the next few weeks and for some reason, this had caused David's tired heart to leap.

* * *

And here David was, standing on a grassy knoll overlooking the playground where he'd spent his fondest childhood memories- before things were complicated and the weight of the world continued to press heavily on his shoulders. David wasn't really sure what he was doing there. He didn't have anything to say to Kurt and Kurt probably didn't have anything to say to him except, "Screw you, David Karofsky." And yet when he'd heard Kurt was going to be in Lima, he'd immediately made plans to try to see him. And saw him he did.

Kurt was beautiful, even more so than he'd been in high school. His fashion taste was still ridiculous in David's mind, but it was definitely more muted, more mature. For a while before Kurt appeared on the far side of the playground, David had been unsure if he'd come at all. How did he know that Kurt had kids? And even if he did, why would they come to this park specifically? But of course- Kurt did have kids and of course- he'd taken them to this park because this was the park where David knew Kurt's mom had taken him. And that made it special.

Kurt looked radiant in the summer sun, and David could hear his tinkling laugh even from where he stood across the park. Clutching one of his hands was a little girl who looked like a tiny, female copy of Kurt himself. Her hair was that same shade of lustrous chestnut that David had always found beautiful in contrast to Kurt's flawless porcelain skin. She was dressed just a tad too formally to be going for a romp at the playground, but of course she would be knowing her father. Following behind the pair was a man that David never thought he'd see again. Blaine Anderson looked good- really good. His hair looked different, less gelled back, David noticed. He walked with an air of sophistication but the square glasses perched on his nose gave him a fatherly look that David thought made him look very approachable. In his arms, fast asleep, was a little boy who couldn't be more than a year old, his head covered with familiar black curls.

David watched as the little family enjoyed their day at the park. Neither of the men, nor the children even looked in his direction and David wasn't sure if this was relief he was feeling or just another kind of disappointment. David had thought that maybe seeing Kurt happy would somehow make him feel better, make him forgive himself for what he'd done to Kurt when they were younger. But instead it just made him regret it even more because he realized that maybe, just maybe, if he hadn't tormented Kurt so mercilessly, it might be him in that park, kissing Kurt's long, lightly muscled neck and wrapping his arms effortlessly around Kurt's slender waist. If he had accepted himself and been strong enough to let himself fall for Kurt, they might have been high school sweethearts, just as Kurt and Blaine had ended up being. David could have been the one to save Kurt instead of that preppy boy Anderson and in return, Kurt could have saved David. Those could be their kids, their little girl shrieking as the swing took her higher and higher into the blue summer sky and their little boy curled into David's arms.

As David gave the little family one last lingering look, he turned away and began to walk slowly down the wayward side of the grassy hill on which he'd been standing for what seemed like years, but what couldn't have been more than an hour. He felt himself begin to melt into his life of anonymity and numbness once again. He rounded the corner and made to get into his truck, the same one he'd had since high school- the one whose license plate Kurt had memorized in order to avoid it in the school parking lot. All he wanted to do was drive home and drown this new emptiness in more booze. But as he reached out to grasp the rusty door handle, his eyes flitted to the windshield.Tucked gently into the windshield was a slip of clean paper. David swore under his breath, the last thing he needed right now was a parking ticket. He angrily plucked the piece of paper from where it was wedged and unfolded it slowly, preparing to face a parking fine he probably couldn't afford. What David found written on the paper was not what he'd expected, certainly not, but that wasn't to say it wasn't appreciated. Tears flooded to his eyes and he choked a little on his breath reading the two words written in Kurt's impeccable script over and over like a mantra.

_I forgive you._

**Author's Note:**

> This has been cleaned up and moved from fanfiction.net.


End file.
